MADISON – Ben Klister and Josh Verbeten produced great finishes on Friday.

The performances by the Wrightstown wrestlers will allow their great uncle, Bill Verbeten, to go out in style in his final season as head coach.

Klister and Josh Verbeten both picked up wins in back-to-back weight classes to advance to the WIAA Division 2 state finals on Saturday at the Kohl Center.

“To win in the fashion that they both did with just a hard-nosed mentality and don’t ever give up (attitude), it was great,” Bill Verbeten said. “It was just great.”

It’s the seventh time in nine years as a Division 2 team the Tigers have advanced at least one wrestler to the state finals.

Klister, a junior, made it there by pulling out a 3-2 overtime tiebreaker decision to defeat Luxemburg-Casco senior Eric Peters for a third time this season at 145 pounds. He’s gone 40-6 this season to return to state after not placing last year.

Verbeten, a senior, won a 6-4 decision over Sheboygan Falls’ Josh Becker to advance to the state finals for the first time in his third trip to Madison. He improves to 40-7 this season.

“The whole team is just a big family, and we push each other to be better every day,” said Klister, whose second-cousins, Chris and Casey, both won state titles for Wrightstown in 2005.

Josh Verbeten, a three-time sectional champion, didn’t reach the podium last year at 145 after placing fifth as a sophomore at 132. His father, Chuck, won Wrightstown’s first state title in 1989.

“It means a lot,” Josh Verbeten said. “In my bedroom I have his chart hanging up on my wall. Every morning when I wake up I look at it and say that’s going to be me. I go to school and practice and work my butt off just for that.”

The Tigers will have three state medalists this year, as senior Stetson Burmeister is in the consolation bracket and can earn a third-place finish on Saturday at 182 if he wins his remaining matches.

As is tradition in Wrightstown, the wrestlers dyed their hair blonde for state. Klister and Verbeten bet their great uncle and coach this year that he would have to dye his hair as well if they made the finals.

Bill Verbeten has spent 37 seasons with the varsity program at Wrightstown, so it remains to be seen if the veteran coach will go out with a different hairstyle on Saturday.

“Bill has always been there for me just from when I was 1-year-old and all the way up,” Klister said. “I’ve always known him and always been on the mat. He deserves this.”